Finding Ideal Brand Ambassadors: It's Easier Than You Think!

Brand ambassadors provide a face for your company within a community of people with whom they have established trust. They represent the values of your brand to consumers, and empower you to spread the word about your brand to potential customers without having to use annoying in-your-face marketing tactics.

Because of their importance, it is critical for companies to enlist ideal candidates to represent their brand. But how can you tell the difference between someone who will fervently represent your brand, and someone who is just in it for the money or merchandise?

In this article, we will outline the key characteristics of a great brand ambassador, as well as provide tips on where to find these folks in order to create a grade A brand ambassador program.

Key Characteristics

While you may think finding enthusiastic, hard working brand ambassadors is as easy as reaching out to your brand’s fans, not every fan is going to fit the criteria for an outstanding brand ambassador. Below are some characteristics an ideal brand ambassador candidate should exhibit.

Passionate & Relavant to Your Brand

First and foremost, brand ambassadors need to feel impassioned by what it is they are representing, and this passion isn’t limited to your products. Brand ambassadors should also be passionate about your brand itself, and the values and mission of your company.

Their own personal interests and hobbies should align with those of your product’s buyer persona. For example, if you are selling hiking equipment, you would want your brand ambassadors to be able to connect your products with ways they could enhance their readers live’s.

That being said, it is your brand’s job to give your ambassadors something to be passionate about and provide them with as many opportunities as possible to tell your brand’s story. Just as you want them to stay on message, your brand should constantly be reinvigorating itself with new mission-driven products or promotions for your customers and ambassadors to get excited about.

Active & Engaging on Social Media

Another necessity for any brand ambassador is a knowledge of social platforms and an ability to represent their brand on social media. Going back to the hiking supply company example, having a team of brand ambassadors who outwardly embody the essence of the brand by posting hiking photos and spending time in nature would be of acute importance.

It is a good idea to seek out candidates who already have a medium- to large-sized network established. This way, they can immediately jump into sharing content for your brand with people who already know and trust them. 92% of consumers trust a recommendation from another consumer over promotional content directly from a company, according to a Nielsen study, and your brand ambassadors are exactly who these recommendations will be coming from.

Professional & Consistent

As the face of your brand, your brand ambassadors must understand that with representation comes responsibility. Be sure to fully vet your potential ambassadors by confirming that there is nothing problematic or contradictory to your company’s values on their personal social media accounts. Ensure that your ambassadors will always represent your company in a positive light by communicating ambassador or campaign specific guidelines before launching your brand ambassador program. Provide your network of influencer with enough information and partnerships criteria without impeding on their creating freedom.

Where To Find Influencers

Knowing what to look for in a brand ambassador is only half of the battle. Actually finding and engaging with them is the next step.

There are several influencer software indexes and market places that make brand partnership identification and management easy. GroupHigh, for example, allows brands to effectively target, interact with, and measure the results of the content creator relationships they develop.

When searching for candidates to represent your brand, you can also scout social media. Browsing consumer review sites like Yelp or Consumer Affairs (which even offers an option to help you find brand ambassadors!) is also a great way to discover who is already strongly advocating for your brand.

Another method of actively recruiting candidates is through sites like Indeed or LinkedIn. Post job descriptions and consider including a questionnaire along with the application that can help weed out the bad candidates from the good.

Regardless your recruitment method, still be sure to examine your applicants using the criteria from above; If they don’t embody the aforementioned key characteristics of a brand ambassador, you will be wasting your time. People share a lot online, so use this to your advantage when deciding if someone would be a good fit for the position. The ideal brand ambassadors are out there, and they are likely right under your nose. Finding them is simply a matter of knowing what to look for!

Melissa Sontag

Melissa is a member of the Content Marketing Team at Repsly, Inc., a dynamic SaaS company that aims to make work simple, social, and fun. A passionate reader and writer, Melissa enjoys writing pieces that can serve to educate and inspire people from all corners of the business world.

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